Cagayan de Oro schools start slow recovery

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Despite everything that has happened to this city, classes in the elementary and secondary levels in the local public schools have begun showing signs of returning to normalcy, educators said.

The Inquirer also observed that most classes were now being held in classrooms instead of covered courts and government facilities.

The children were also running around and interacting with each other.

“The students are more cheerful now … it really helped that they were able to see their friends with the reopening of classes. They are slowly getting back to normal,” said Jasmin Ching of the principal’s office at Macasandig Elementary and National High School.

52 students dead

The Department of Education (DepEd) reported that 52 students lost their lives in the flash floods that hit this city when Tropical Storm “Sendong” struck on Dec. 17, 2011.

Most of them had lived on Isla de Oro, a sandbar on the Cagayan de Oro River, and had attended City Central School.

Macasandig Elementary and National High School reported 16 fatalities.

Ching said Macasandig school officials expected the number to rise, as bodies continued to be found, like those discovered under mud last week in Tambo.

The school also had the biggest number of missing students, Ching said, based on a report the principal’s office got from teachers.

28 still missing

As of Friday, 28 Macasandig elementary school students remained missing. The number citywide was 75.

Ching said that school attendance had increased since classes resumed, and they were now following the regular 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. schedule.

Myrna Motoomull, the city schools division superintendent, said the students did fairly well last week, compared with the week of January 3 when they first reported back.

In Iligan City, where 36 schoolchildren died and 122 are still missing, the high incidence of absenteeism continued.

Losing interest

Tina Lomoljo of Mindanao Emergency Response Network said many children they observed in psychosocial support sessions they conducted in evacuation camps had lost interest in going to school.

“Many children need to be made interested in school again,” Lomoljo said.

Dr. Alice Engracia-Anghay, DepEd information officer in Iligan, said based on their monitoring, about a fifth of the students at 29 elementary and secondary schools affected by the floods had not yet returned to class.

The authorities, meanwhile, were closely monitoring the cases of 19 children who were orphaned by the floods.

More needs to be done

Grace Saquilabon, the city social welfare officer, said the children were in the care of their next of kin.

For six months, social workers will perform “postdisaster care services” and regularly check on the children to see how they are adjusting and getting along with their new families, she said.

Latest figures from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council had 694 dead in Cagayan de Oro, 3,071 injured and 102 missing.

In Iligan, 459 were killed, 2,963 injured and three missing.—With Inquirer Research